Ex-Sun CEO Schwartz Launches Startup, Keeps Ponytail

Jonathan Schwartz, the baby-faced former CEO of Sun Microsystems, more or less disappeared from public view the day after Oracle closed the purchase of Sun in 2010.

He famously took his leave with a resignation haiku on Twitter:

Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more

Schwartz has since been putting in some time on corporate boards; among others, he sites on the board of Taleo, the HR software company that just sold itself to noneother than Oracle.. (He's also a director at the smart-grid play Silver Spring Networks and at Moxie Software, which provides social software for the enterprise.) Otherwise, he's largely been out of sight.

CareZone: A screenshot.

But after taking some time to "decompress" from what was a hugely stressful end to his tenure in Sun's top job, Schwartz has surfaced as the founder of CareZone, a brand-new start up targeted at helping consumers keep track of the information they need to care for the elderly, children or any other loved ones that have complicated health needs. The idea: provide a secure, password protected site to store and share information about the people and processes connected to loved ones in need.

Sitting outside a cafe on University Avenue in Palo Alto late last week, still sporting his trademark ponytail, Schwartz laid out the idea. People who share responsibility for providing care for the seriously ill have to track and share a variety of detailed information, he notes. Doctors and their contact information. Prescription information. Schedules for visiting doctors and taking meds. Often the job of tracking this sort of thing falls not to the ill, but instead to the people who care for them. And, he adds, these people need to share the information with other care providers, paid or unpaid. And they want the ability to share that information in complete privacy.

Schwartz notes that the need for privacy more ofrless ruled out building the company with a traditional online media model that relies on advertising. Instead, the site will be subscription based. Consumers will pay $5 a month for each individual they want to track on the site; $8 a month for tracking two people; $10 for three. You can pre-pay for a full year for $48. And he notes that the cost includes as many caregivers as an account holder chooses to invite.

The initial version of the site, as Schwartz readily admits, is a work in progress. The site includes a list of basic functions: A journal feature for chronicling general information; a list of medications; a to-do list; a contact list; and a "notes" section, for other information, like instructions on how administer particular medical treatments. Coming eventually will be features like calendars, expense trackers and access to outside medical records; you can also imagine other ideas, like connections to pharmacies and warnings on potentially troublesome drug interactions.

Founded in June 2011, CareZone is launching service today. Schwartz is the company's CEO and primary funding source; he is building the company with his friend Walter Smith, a former Apple and Microsoft exec who among other things wrote NewtonScript, a language for creating programs for the Apple Newton.

CareZone will launch initially in English, with a Spanish language version in the next 30-60 days. The company so far is just seven people, with Schwartz running the virtual company from home in San Francisco. As has become the standard for new Web-based startups, the site is using Amazon Web Services to provide computing services.

Schwartz made a splash at Sun for, among other things, being one of the few public company CEO writing a blog that actually had something substantive to say, though he eventually was more or less muzzled by Sun's PR and legal types. But he'll have no such restrictions at CareZone. Whether or not the company succeeds - and it is far too early to even guess at their chances - it certainly is appealing to have Schwartz and his ponytail back in the game.